Recap: 'Glee' finds its place at 'Sectionals,' season finale

None of this two-week, multi-hour finale stuff for “Glee”: The show managed to tie up loads of loose strings – from Emma and Schue, to the competition, to Quinn’s dishonesty – in the one tidy hour of “Sectionals.”

It kicks off with Rachel suspecting that Puck is the father of Quinn’s baby because she noticed Puck moving to the aid of the pregnant cheerleader after a fall. And because she thinks she’s “a little psychic.” She stirs the pot by telling Quinn that she should have the baby checked for Tay-Sachs disease if the father is at all Jewish (this checks out, by the way), and ultimately tells Finn of psychic suspicion, because she’s still got mad hots for him.

Meanwhile, the rest of Glee knows Quinn’s secret anyway – Mercedes told ‘em – but want to suppress Rachel from spilling the beans because they’re pawing their way to sectionals and can’t bear a shake-up. Schuester, who can’t go to the competition because of Sue’s previous blackmailing attempt, has recruited Emma to travel with the group as advisor, and departs mentioning “I don’t know what the future holds for me or for us.” (Hey, FOX, are you listening?)

Too bad, all for naught. Finn soon gets punchy with Puck, dumps Quinn, quits Glee. Quinn, who’s strong suit was never crying, cries. Rachel feels bad, tells Quinn she’s sorry for her loose lips, and reveals her feelings for Finn. Quinn tells Puck she’s raising the baby on her own. And off to sectionals we go!

The songlist that Sue Sylvester leaked to the rival high school took effect, and the urban all-girls school rips off Mercedes’ solo moment, “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from “Dreamgirls,” and the group’s “Proud Mary” (with wheelchairs!), while the deaf school provides the evergreen Deaf People Can’t Sing joke on “Don’t Stop Believing.”

McKinley is crushed, near defeat, until Finn arrives an hour before their performance, with sheet music to his new personal anthem “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones. He was inspired after Schue’s anti-pep talk to him that being a leader, being special and “the bigger man,” sometimes “sucks.”

Rachel, naturally, was ready with a new showstopping solo, Barbra Streisand’s classic “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl.” Even as it’s lip-synched, here’s a lesson in breathing, folks.

As the judges of sectionals debate the winner, the kids confront/are confronted by Jane Addams Academy for Girls coach (Eve! Again!), who has good intentions of coming clean about cheating and ripping off the crew’s songlist. That doesn’t happen, but what does happen is that the coaches from both rival high schools tell Principal Figgins that Sue Sylvester was the one who leaked the songlists to them. Figgins apparently grows a pair in about five seconds, dismisses Sue as the Cheerios coach and reinstates Schue as the leader of Glee. Sue vows revenge in a storm of many mixed metaphors.

All this, and the group wins the competition, on their own merit, too.

What of Emma’s wedding, then? She had pushed off her wedding for a few hours so that she could play advisor to the team, the last straw for Ken, who finally sees the light that, one, she’s just settling for him and, two, she’s always had eyes for Will. Schue arrives in the ultra-tacky-decorated VFW hall for the nuptials, only to find Emma, beautiful bride Emma, alone, after being dumped. She reveals that she’s resigned from McKinley because of the shame she has about the whole Ken thing and because every time she sees Schue, she’s heartbroken. Will tells her he’s “just left my wife.” She gives it pause, but at that moment, is having none of it, since this all “just” happened. In the reference to Mercedes' song, "I'm going."

And Schue has left Terri, true, though in clashing with him at home, she tries to make her case, mentioning she’s started going to therapy. She asks if his love is gone forever and Schue, leaving that door open, says he doesn’t know.

Later, Glee presents Schuester with the trophy and a very special performance of one of Kelly Clarkson’s newer singles “Life Would Suck Without You,” which then inspires him to run down the hall (in slow-motion, no less) to find Emma before she departs. He finds her with her packed box, sets it on the floor, and sets a kiss on her lips. She smiles, just as we all did, since we’ve waited for this thing to happen all season. and end scene.

We are promised the next big hurdle for the group, Regionals, when the season starts back up on April 13.

Props to the show’s writers for continuing its development on cheerleader Britney, this show’s Ralph Wiggum: she said she wasn’t keen on Emma being Glee’s advisor because of a certain “keeping that bird in my locker” incident. Puck keeps bringing the pain with a “Fight Club” mention and, in a moment of songless panic, Artie delivers by offering to “improvise some of my def poetry jams.” And no one, not even the show’s creators, don’t know what a city comptroller does.

After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.